The Takedown(90)

It all pretty much unraveled from there.





Audra answered the door. She was clad in slouchy gray sweats, a tattered white tank with no bra underneath, and not a stitch of makeup. This wasn’t Audra caught unawares. This was as much a look as if she were decked out in Gucci. A typical teen’s casual attire didn’t involve popcorn-sized diamond studs. Popped-popcorn-sized studs, mind you—no kernels there. They were like the earrings that Mac’s cousins all sported, except Audra’s rocks weren’t fake. This time we didn’t exchange a squealing hug.

“Have a photo shoot today?” I asked.

“Yup.” She elevated her chin.

“Cool. Are you still eating or can I come in?”

“We’re almost done.” She looked back over her shoulder, hesitated, then shrugged. “Why not?”

Locking the door behind me, she asked, “So did you confront your big hater?”

“Not yet.”

I’m about to.

As we made our way through the downstairs, I pulled up the AnyLies txt thread.

I typed,

moi Gotcha

then hit send.

Up ahead in the dining room, there was an old-skool beeping alert. Audra heard it too but didn’t say anything. Weird as it sounded, I was going to miss txting AnyLies.

In the dining room, judging by the level of wine in the Parents’ glasses and the empty bottle on the table, they had indeed come to the final minutes of the meal. Neither Parent looked up when I entered.

“Hello, dear,” the Mother said.

The Father said nothing.

“Father, we need your chair.”

“No, don’t get up. I can stand,” I said.

“That’s silly. My parents are finished anyway, aren’t you?”

Clearly, Audra was trying to get them out of the room, probably afraid of what they were about to hear. Normally, I’d be cringing, waiting for the sniping to start. For once I wasn’t at all concerned by their icy remoteness. Or by the wall screen blaring violent news. Or that the chicken bones on the plate indicated that the Mother had forgotten again that Audra was pescatarian. And not because I’d written Audra off, but because there, sitting in my usual seat, bearing this torture with a grateful smile, was my old best friend and current hater, Ailey.





“Kyle,” Ailey said brightly. “So glad you stopped by.”

She said this generously, as if this were her house, her friend, her life I’d just been invited into. Not as if she was stealing mine.

“It looks like we’re finished eating,” the Father said, but made no move to stand.

Something like surprise flickered in the Mother’s eyes, that her daughter had two friends over. I imagined pulling up Audra’s naked pics on the wall screen. Seeing if that could wrench a stronger emotion from this woman. But I didn’t want to steal Audra’s thunder. No doubt she’d been looking forward to that moment since she turned eighteen two weeks ago. I wished I could be there to see their reactions. But then, shockingly, the Mother pushed back in her chair and picked up her plate.

“Do not think bad manners will always be rewarded in this household, Audra Bethany. Gregory, let’s let the girls chat.”

While Audra cleared, I stared at Ailey. Her braids were piled high on her head, as if she’d had them shoved under a wig. She was clad in comfy yoga sweats, but her tank was more form-fitting than anything I’d ever seen her wear. I shouldn’t have been surprised that Ailey had developed so much. It wasn’t the first time I’d seen her cleavage recently. Only the first time I’d seen it in person.

Her eyes flicked to me, then away. Her right hand moved to twirl her braid as it did when she was nervous, but it only met air and settled for her earlobe instead. She checked if I was still staring at her. I was. A tiny nervous whicker escaped her.

“Smiley face,” she said.

When the Parents left, Audra closed the dining room doors. Ailey took her Doc off her lap and placed it on the table. I wondered if she and Audra had been engaging in the same surreptitious dinnertime color commentary that Audra and I always had. I realized I didn’t care.

“So?” Audra asked, hands on hips.

“Sorry to interrupt. Ailey, I was about to tell Audra that I figured out who made the sex video. It’s this hacker in Philly. I was going to show you guys what we swiped from his home hub, but my Doc died on the bus ride back. We left in such a hurry to get there, I forgot my charger. Ailey, can I borrow yours real quick?”

“My charger?”

“No. Your Doc.”

She clutched it to her chest, glanced at Audra, who rolled her eyes impatiently, like, what’s the big deal? Only then did Ailey meekly nod and hand it over.

“You actually tracked down the person that made the video?” Ailey asked.

“We did.” To Audra I said, “He was one of the ConnectBook guys after all. We got him to delete the source file.”

“So that’s it?” Audra asked, begrudgingly interested, begrudgingly impressed. “The video’s gone?”

“Not quite. You were actually right too. There was something that linked us all. We all looked like his ex. And there was a reason I was chosen more than the others. Oops, Ailey you deleted me as a biometrics user. Is the friends’ password prompt still the same?” Before Ailey could answer, into the Doc’s microphone I said, “Flipper Fourteen.”